What does Tim Walz bring to the Kamala Harris campaign?
Running mate has 'energised' the party and 'balanced' the ticket – but will it be enough?

Tim Walz has formally accepted the vice-presidential nomination, telling Democrats that "we'll sleep when we're dead".
Kamala Harris's running mate was "emotional" as he "touted his small-town upbringing" at the Democratic National Convention, said the BBC, but although his party seems "energised" by his place on the ticket, polls still suggest a "very close race" with Donald Trump and his own running mate, JD Vance.
What did the commentators say?
Walz's address in Chicago was a "political speed date" for a man "with limited time to show what he stands for", wrote James Matthews, US correspondent for Sky News. In the "huge" speech, he "won over delegates' hearts and minds", said Ed Pilkington, chief reporter for The Guardian US. Trump has claimed that vice-presidential running mates make "virtually no impact" on elections, and after Walz's speech, the Republican "better pray he's right".
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"At moments", wrote Philip Elliott for Time, it was "plenty clear" that Walz could "make inroads" to moderates and conservative voters who "mightn't be entirely on-board with Harris".
Walz "seems entirely comfortable", if "cornily so", in his "persona as the Dad Next Door" who "never found a cliche he didn't find useful as a proxy for his feelings", and he "also brought sufficient fire" to keep the Democratic base "fired up" without "alienating the centrist core that is this nation".
Allies believe Walz can "broaden" Harris's appeal to "rural and working class voters", wrote Sam Cabral for BBC News. The 60-year-old "brings with him a folksy, plain-spoken and sharp-tongued approach" and political experience, "representing a Republican-leaning district in Congress" and "then later passing left-wing policies as Minnesota's governor", which could have "broad appeal" at a time when US politics is "so polarised".
"In recent years", Bruce Schulman, the William E. Huntington Professor of History at the Boston University College of Arts & Sciences, told BU Today, "the idea of 'balance' has reappeared" in demographic terms. The Democrats have balanced gender on their tickets three times and the Republicans have done it once. "You could consider this a case of both gender and ethnic-racial balance", he added.
Reporting on the first Harris-Walz event, in Philadelphia earlier this month, The Independent's Andrew Feinberg said the arena was "literally packed to the rafters" with an energy that "hasn't been present at any Democratic event in nearly a decade".
The "multiracial, multigenerational" crowd "mirrored the scenes I witnessed during Donald Trump's first campaign for the presidency" and was also "something I hadn't seen since" Barack Obama's campaign for a second term. Harris and Walz may be the underdogs, but Feinberg thinks we could see an "underdog victory on election night".
What next?
With one more day to go, the convention will climax with a speech by Harris this evening, when she'll "face the biggest test of her political life", said Lauren Gambino in The Guardian.
With Walz watching, she is expected to try and "lay out her personal story" as she "bids to become a historic president: the first woman president and the first woman of colour", but she "will also lay out a sharp contrast" between her "positive view of the country's future prospects" and Trump's "almost wholly grim warnings about the state of the nation" and his "focus on immigration and crime".
Trump is "reportedly fretting" over whether Harris's speech will "draw more viewers than his did", said The Independent. The "notoriously ratings-fixated" former president has been asking some media and political allies "what they think the Democratic convention's TV ratings will be like", said Rolling Stone.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.
-
Why Nepal wants to see the return of the king
Under the Radar Frustration is growing with 'corrupt' and impoverished republic, and many pin their hopes on Gyanendra – who gave up the throne 17 years ago
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Today's political cartoons - March 16, 2025
Cartoons Sunday's cartoons - head games, skyfall, and more
By The Week US Published
-
5 explosively funny cartoons about Musk's faulty spacecrafts
Cartoons Artists take on trading up, blowing up, and more
By The Week US Published
-
J.D. Vance: Trump's attack dog
In the Spotlight The 'hillbilly in the White House' is used to being the odd one out in a room
By The Week UK Published
-
Is Donald Trump a Russian agent?
The Explainer 'We have to consider the possibility that President Trump is a Russian asset' former Tory minister Graham Stuart tweeted last week. Do we?
By The Week UK Published
-
What is Barack Obama's net worth?
The Explainer Royalties from book sales continue to drive the former president's financial portfolio
By David Faris Published
-
Trump's military makeover: fewer rules, more violence
IN THE SPOTLIGHT The president and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth have begun dramatically rewriting the guidelines for armed forces' operations
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Schumer: Democrats will help pass spending bill
Speed Read The Democrats end the threat of government shutdown
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Trump pulls nomination of anti-vax CDC pick
Speed Read Former Florida congressmen Dr. Dave Weldon was nominated to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Judges tell Trump to rehire fired federal workers
Speed Read Trump and Elon Musk's DOGE team face a big setback in their efforts to shrink the federal workforce
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
How feasible is a Ukraine ceasefire?
Today's Big Question Kyiv has condemned Putin's 'manipulative' response to proposed agreement
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published